


Practice Makes Perfect

by camichats



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Marauders Fest 2020, Practice Kissing, Relationship Discussions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-17 01:49:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28841163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camichats/pseuds/camichats
Summary: Sirius agrees to snog James so that they can both get some practice in when they start dating people. It takes Moony walking in on them a couple weeks after their agreement to realise that there might be more to their relationship.
Relationships: Sirius Black/James Potter
Comments: 10
Kudos: 76
Collections: Marauders Fest 2020





	Practice Makes Perfect

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was created for Marauders Fest 2020 for the prompt F14 "James wants to practice kissing before he asks Lily out. His friend is happily agreeing but "practising" quickly leads to more"

Sirius blinked at him. "So, you want to be a good kisser for when Lily eventually says yes to you, and your solution to that is to snog me?" 

"Practice makes perfect, Padfoot," James said. "What do you say?" 

"Sure." Sirius had only snogged one person, and he wasn't entirely sure that he'd done it right. The other bloke hadn't said anything, but that wasn't the sort of thing you'd tell a stranger anyways. 

"Really?" James asked, excited. He looked a like a damn puppy right now, and Sirius found it absolutely adorable. 

"Yeah." Sirius started to lean in, then paused and cocked his head. "Are we doing this right now?" 

"Sure. I mean, it's not like we're going to be good at this after _one time_." 

Sirius nodded. "Very true." He continued to lean in, and James met him halfway. It was sort of awkward at first, but there was no getting around that. The whole point of doing this was to be good at it, which meant that in the beginning, they were going to be bad. Neither of them much liked being bad at anything, but the longer Sirius sat there, snogging James with a hand in his hair, he realised that maybe neither of them were as shite at it as they'd been worried about. 

If nothing else, he was definitely effected by having James's tongue in his mouth-- which wasn't something he would've thought would be true before they kissed. James was fit, yeah, and Sirius might've let his eyes linger once or twice, but he hadn't thought he'd enjoy it this much. It was a good thing to be proven wrong every once in a while, but like fuck was he going to say that aloud where someone else could hear it. Especially James. 

* * *

It probably would've turned into something even if they hadn't gotten caught, but it did force them to talk about it when otherwise, they would've remained silent for a long time. 

Remus got out of detention early and walked into the dormitory to see James on Sirius's lap, with Sirius's hands rather firmly on his arse. Naturally, at being interrupted, they stopped snogging and looked to see who it was that had opened the door. There was a rather long pause where James and Sirius stared at Remus, and Remus stared right back, gaping. 

"It's not what it looks like," Sirius said, because that's what you were supposed to say in times like this, right? 

"It looks like the two of you were snogging," Remus said, still looking dumbstruck. 

"Oh," James said. "Well in that case, it's exactly what it looks like." 

"Are you dating now?" Remus asked, not taking a single step closer or moving to close the door. Given that Sirius hadn't moved his hands yet, that was fair. Sirius considered moving them, but James had a rather nice arse and he didn't get to grope him nearly often enough. 

"Er." Sirius glanced at James, who shrugged. "Maybe." 

James rolled his eyes because that's not what he'd meant. He'd meant that he didn't care what they told Remus one way or the other, because at least _they_ would still know what the truth was. Actually, now that he thought about it, "You should've just said yes." 

"Are we though?" Sirius asked, finally moving his hands so that he could lean back into them. Since they weren't going to get back to snogging soon, he might as well pretend to be civilized. 

"I dunno, but it's not like Mooney needs to know about that." 

"What do you mean you don't know? I thought you _said_ that-" 

"Yeah, but that was weeks ago," James argued. "We haven't really reevaluated." 

Sirius rolled his eyes. 

Remus, for his part, looked like he regretted ever asking. Or having gotten out of detention. He'd rather be in the trophy room, polishing some stupid old commendation than be here with a front row seat to his best mates having a relationship conversation. 

"Fine," Sirius said, "let's reevaluate." 

"What, right now?" 

"What's wrong with right now?" 

"Well we were sort of in the _middle_ of something," James said, widening his eyes meaningfully-- as if there could've been any misunderstanding about what he meant. 

"It's not like we would’ve kept going with Moony here," Sirius said. 

"I'm gonna go," Remus said, because he got the feeling that even if James got off his lap, they wouldn't entirely stop; he didn't want to deal with that. 

"Problem solved," James said, and it sort of seemed like neither of them noticed when Remus actually left because they didn't look over or say goodbye. 

"So are we reevaluating now or later?" Sirius asked. 

"Later," James said decisively and leaned in. 

With a mental shrug, he kissed James back. He didn't know what good talking was going to do. Even if they'd gone beyond the bounds of what they'd originally agreed to, James still fancied Lily. He wasn't going to drop that just because it felt good to kiss each other. 

* * *

"Okay, reevaluating." 

Sirius groaned and opened one eye to glare at him. "Now? Honestly, mate?" 

"Well yeah. We agreed to talk later, and it's later." 

"It's _too_ later. I'm getting sleep if I have to kill you for it." 

"You would never." 

"That's so not the point." 

"But-" 

Sirius pulled the pillow out from under his head and hit him with it. 

"Hey-" 

Sirius hit him again, and he wasn’t pulling his punches. "We can talk in the morning for as long as you bloody want if you just _let me get some sleep!"_

"Merlin, you're pissy when you're tired," James muttered, taking the pillow from him. 

Instead of asking for it back, Sirius put his arm under his head and closed his eyes. "As someone that's been sharing a room with me for this long, you should've figured that out ages ago. Now _shut it."_

"Fine," he said, rolling his eyes-- though the full effect was lost because Sirius wasn't looking at him. 

* * *

"Are you going to claim that you're still too tired?" James asked the next morning. 

"Why are you so bloody _awake_ all the time?" Sirius grumbled, but he hugged James closer as he yawned, so it was clear that the complaint was mostly for show. 

"The chipper-ness was built right into my soul. So are we reevaluating or what?" 

Sirius looked at him, saw the serious expression on his face, and moved his head back up to the pillow. "Fine. Reevaluate. You said that you wanted to practice snogging someone so you wouldn't be utter shite when Lily finally agreed to date you. That's how we started, and I thought that's where we still were." 

"No," James said, then backtracked. "I mean, yeah, that's how it started, but things've changed since then. I think I fancy you. Like... want to date _you_ , not Lily. I'm not sure how long I've felt that way, but I think it actually started before I asked you for help. I mean- come on, asking you to snog me just for practice? I don't think that's something most best mates do. I didn't think it was weird at the time, but now that I'm thinking about it, it was pretty strange. I mean, snogging practice? Really?" 

"I didn't think it was that weird," Sirius said. Obviously he'd been fine with it-- excited, even-- because he'd said yes and then they'd done it. 

"Yeah, but don't you think it'd be weird if we found out that like, Moony and Wormtail were doing that?" 

Sirius wrinkled his nose. "I don't think either of them would've ever agreed to it." 

"That's my point. If we don't think that any other friends would do it, then that would mean there's something extra going on here." 

"Fair enough," Sirius agreed slowly. "I don't know how I'd feel about us... dating, though." 

"What do you mean?" 

"Well you can't be friends with someone you're dating, can you?" 

"Why the hell not? Aren't you supposed to date people you like? And who do you like more than your friends?" 

"So you think we can still be best friends while we're dating?" 

"Yeah. Who else would I be best mates with, anyways?" James asked, mouth curved in amusement. "We can do both. I have faith in us." 

"Aww you have _faith_ in us," Sirius cooed, pinching James's cheek. 

"I'm not joking." 

"Yeah, I know," Sirius said, patting his cheek after letting go, then resting his hand against his face because he didn't really feel like moving. "I just don't know what I'd do without you. If we get into a stupid fight and break up, I could lose more than my boyfriend." 

"Okay, fair, but no matter how big of a fight we get in, you're not gonna lose me. You think I want to risk losing you either? Hell no. Besides, no matter how much we fight as a couple, it wouldn't be about anything we did as friends, right?" 

"How would I know? I've never dated anyone, and I know you haven't either. I admit it makes me feel better to hear you say all this, but you don't really know how to deal with this anymore than I do. You're just guessing." 

"Yeah," James admitted easily, “but if we both want to do it, then I don't see why we shouldn't give it a try. It could be pretty bloody amazing if we actually tried it, don’t you think?" 

"Fine." 

"Fine as in you agree with me?" 

"Fine as in this better bloody work out, or I'm going to be quite cross with you for getting my hopes up." 

"Aww, you're such a softie," James teased with a smile. 

"Only for you, so don't let it get out." 

James rolled his eyes. "Right, because I always talk to people about the way we deal with each other." 

"Hey, I don't know what you get up to when I'm not around." 

"That's because you're always around." 

"You complaining?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow. 

"Hell no. You try to get space now, and I'll drag you right back in." 

"Damn right," Sirius said. He leaned in and pressed a kiss to James's mouth, more of a nuzzle than anything else. "You'd be lost without me." 

"Only as much as you'd be lost without _me_ ," James said, a touch defensively. 

"Of course I would. I'm nothing without you." 

"That's a blatant lie, but I'm willing to let it go if you'll kiss me again." 

Sirius chuckled, then kissed him. 


End file.
